Prescribe treatments or therapies
Part of the output can be produced by software today.
An agent can propose the plan, chase the replies and keep the record current. To actually change anything it needs write access to a calendar or work system, and a person still owns the tradeoffs when two plans collide.
| How automatable | Partly automatable |
|---|---|
| Kind of work | Scheduling, planning and resource control |
| Jobs that do it | 19 occupations |
| Tool categories that apply | Tools and auth, Builders |
| O*NET activity | Monitoring and Controlling Resources (4.A.4.c.3) |
What this looks like on the job
Not our paraphrase. These are real task statements recorded against this activity, spread across the 19 occupations that perform it.
- Prescribe therapeutic procedures to correct or conserve vision.
- Work in hospitals or clinics or for Health Management Organizations (HMOs), dispensing prescriptions, serving as a medical team consultant, or specializing in specific drug therapy areas, such as oncology or nuclear pharmacotherapy.
- Prescribe therapy or medication with physician approval.
- Prescribe medications, corrective devices, physical therapy, or surgery.
- Prescribe individualized exercise programs, specifying equipment, such as treadmill, exercise bicycle, ergometers, or perceptual goggles.
- Recommend diagnostic or therapeutic interventions with attention to safety, cost, invasiveness, simplicity, acceptability, adherence, and efficacy.
- Provide medical care and consultation in many settings, prescribing medication and treatment and referring patients for surgery.
- Prescribe or administer treatment, therapy, medication, vaccination, and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury.
- Prescribe or administer medication, therapy, and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury.
- Order supportive care services, such as physical therapy, specialized nursing care, and social services.
- Prescribe or administer therapy, medication, and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury.
- Prescribe or administer treatment, therapy, medication, vaccination, and other specialized medical care to treat or prevent illness, disease, or injury in infants and children.
- Prescribe, direct, or administer psychotherapeutic treatments or medications to treat mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders.
- Prescribe physical therapy to relax the muscles and improve strength.
- Develop and prescribe exercise programs, such as off-season conditioning regimens.
- Prescribe ophthalmologic treatments or therapies such as chemotherapy, cryotherapy, or low vision therapy.
- Prescribe preoperative and postoperative treatments and procedures, such as sedatives, diets, antibiotics, or preparation and treatment of the patient's operative area.
- Describe preoperative and postoperative treatments and procedures, such as sedatives, diets, antibiotics, or preparation and treatment of the patient's operative area, to parents or guardians of the patient.
What we would actually use
One recommendation rather than a shortlist, because a shortlist is just your problem handed back. This is what we would buy for scheduling, planning and resource control, and what it costs.
Scheduling is a connector problem rather than an intelligence one, and $9 a month of Make covers both the calendar and the chasing. An agent platform priced per seat adds nothing you would notice here.
Chosen for the cheapest thing that does the job, not the best funded. Nothing on this site is sponsored, and the full landscape is there when you want to disagree with us.
The rest of the category
Context, not alternatives to weigh up. We name the layer rather than promise a named product does your specific task.
Matched from the kind of work, not from vendor marketing. Check any of them can reach the system your records actually live in — that connection, not the model, is where these projects stall.
How people actually do it
No workflow names this activity yet, but these automate the same kind of work, with the prompts to paste and what to keep for yourself.
Who does this work
19 occupations in the O*NET database perform this activity. Each one has a full breakdown of its other tasks.
- Acupuncturists
- Anesthesiologists
- Exercise Physiologists
- Family Medicine Physicians
- General Internal Medicine Physicians
- Neurologists
- Nurse Practitioners
- Obstetricians and Gynecologists
- Ophthalmologists, Except Pediatric
- Optometrists
- Orthopedic Surgeons, Except Pediatric
- Pediatric Surgeons
- Pediatricians, General
- Pharmacists
- Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians
- Physician Assistants
- Podiatrists
- Psychiatrists
- Sports Medicine Physicians
Work that goes with it
O*NET groups these under “Prescribe medical treatments or devices”. In practice they tend to be done by the same person, in the same sitting.
| Activity | Jobs |
|---|---|
| Prescribe medications | 32 |
| Prescribe assistive medical devices or related treatments | 6 |
| Control prescription refills or authorizations | 3 |
Method. The activity, its taxonomy placement and the occupations that perform it come straight from the public-domain O*NET 30.3 database. The automatability band is ours: we map each of O*NET’s 41 generalized work activities to how much of its output current software can produce, assuming a person still reviews and owns the result. It is a coarse three-way judgment on purpose. A precise-looking percentage here would be invented.